Joel stopped before the last painting in the studio that he subconsciously avoided the whole time. A bucket and a large paintbrush weighted down his hands as his resolve was wavering. Why was he hesitating? He had no problem destroying every other painting he had seen: smearing them in black and red paint, breaking the frames, even cutting the canvas. Amongst them were his favourite pieces, pieces that he was proud of once, why was he hesitating in front of an unfinished portrait? Joel never liked this piece in particular, it seemed like everything that could go wrong -- did go wrong with it. Paint didn't layer like he wanted, the colour wasn't quite what he wanted, he fixed the face at least 10 times. Not to mention, he doesn't actually remember if he ever saw Etho smile like that. Truly Joel didn't remember even why he decided to paint Etho in first place. Yet nonetheless he couldn't bring the bucket of paint to throw on the canvas. "Do you really see me like this?" Etho mused as he noticed the new painting that Joel didn't bother to put away. He wasn't offended by the portrait at all as Joel thought he would. Joel expected Etho to make fun of him for getting his features wrong from memory. But the smug comment never came. "Do you really see me like this?". Joel didn't answer back then. It was rhetorical anyway. Etho's smiling face looked at him mischievously from the canvas. What Etho will say when Joel tells him what he'd done? Will he be upset? Will he care? Will he ask why Joel did it? Will he ask about this painting? Whatever. This was stupid. The painting was stupid. Joel hates painting, this is why he quits. This is why he destroys all the evidence and throws away last decade of his life. He can't destroy this painting.